Assassin's Creed 4: 40% of missions to be ship shaped

It seems that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag players will have plenty of chance to get their sea legs. In a Q&A released by Ubisoft, the developer reveals that around 40% of the game's missions will be naval-based. Not only that, but a "Horizon" system will create additional opportunities for potential pillagers. Seriously, Ubisoft? You're creating a dynamic pirate mission generator, and you don't call it the Yo-Ho-Horizon system?

"Mission wise, land missions will represent approximately 60% of the game and naval ones 40%," the Q&A states. "But if you take the global experience that players will leave with ACIVBF we're more talking about 50-50.

"The Seamless, systemic open-world system (Horizon System) packed full of sea and underwater activities will represent a big part of the game."

According to Ubisoft, at any point you'll be able to take out a spyglass, scan the horizon and be given 2-3 dynamically generated naval activities, from robbing a merchant convoy, to whale hunting or pirate rescue.

As promising as it all sounds, it's a very different idea of an Assassin's Creed game. Ubisoft reassure that the series' staples will also be present. "Free-running, social stealth and combat are still the key pillars of our ground experience but are also used (free-running and combat) in the boarding sequences of ships."

Are you looking forward to high-seas hijinks, or are you more of a landlubber, worried about the new game's nautical shift?